Quick To Be Kind
by EmmaJ1996
Summary: Stefan gets given another chance with Elena. But with unfinished business with Damon, will she succumb to her true feelings?


_**Be Quick To Be Kind**_

"Elena, you don't want to be with me. Just because I'm not drinking human blood, doesn't mean I can't hurt you," implored Stefan, but looking into those eyes, full of hope and courage, he found himself unable to resist her touch across his cheek.

"You know, you're probably right. You're a brooding vampire, been dead for 150 years and might snap at any point. But isn't that exactly what I signed myself up for when I first started dating you?" Elena knew that things would not be the same between her and Stefan. He had changed, but so had she. In his absence, she had become stronger, more daring. She had found her Petrova fire.

"Elena, I can't. Because if I say yes, I won't be able to let you go again. I can't. If this is what you really want, then that's fine, trust me. But if you still have feelings for my brother-"

"I don't. Yeah, you know what, when you weren't here, he made things a lot easier, and I owe him that for distracting me, because otherwise I would have fallen apart. He helped me, made me stronger," interrupted Elena.

Elena wasn't exactly sure how far that statement rang true, as her feelings for Damon...well...they hadn't been dealt with, to say the least. Since Damon slept with Rebekah, they had never really had a chance to discuss their relationship, let alone to gain any sort of closure.

So Elena did what she knew was the safer option overall. She knew that Stefan wasn't the best boyfriend. She could just about her Damon scoffing into his bourbon and muttering how Stefan tried to drive her off a bridge, but hey, thank God that Klaus has a weak spot.

But Stefan loved her. Stefan didn't go out of his way to hurt her. He ended it with her to keep her hidden from Klaus, to hide her from the monster that he had become. Damon, on the other hand, killed her brother. Because she told him that it would always be Stefan. He slept with Rebekah, when Elena suggested that maybe Damon's love for her was the problem.

Maybe. She said maybe.

Damon was the one who needed to get over himself. He was the one who stormed off like a petulant infant. Throwing his tantrums (and his fists) whenever he got tipped over the edge. Stefan was definitely the better option. On animal blood, Stefan was docile. The only thing to tip him over the edge was the poison that he no longer drank: human blood. Damon, on the other hand, would tip at almost anything.

"Elena? Hello? Yes or no?" asked Stefan, bringing Elena very vividly back into the conversation.

"Hmmm...sorry, what?" stalled Elena, unable to hide the fact that she had zoned out of her boyfriend talking to her. The boyfriend that she supposedly loved so much. So much that she was still getting herself worked up over Damon.

"Do you need a ride home? I'm going hunting for a couple of days...it's nearly nightfall," replied Stefan, trying in vain not to show his irritation that Elena had not been listening to him for a good few minutes. They had been talking about their feelings for each other, and she wasn't paying attention. There was something more important to her at the exact moment that he was talking about their second chance to be happy.

"Errr...no, it's cool. Caroline's picking me up," Elena lied smoothly. Ten minutes into her and Stefan's clean break, and she was already lying to him. She knew that if she told him what she was planning on doing, he would seriously hate it. They'd get into a fight about it, he wouldn't understand why. She convinced herself that the lie was to protect both her and Stefan. Their relationship. Their fresh start would be tainted if he thought she was still thinking about him.

"Okay, well, I'll see you in a couple of days, okay? Call me when you're home so I know you weren't attacked by a hybrid," joked Stefan. Still a sore subject for Elena, and scared that Stefan would still see through her lie, she didn't dare look him in the eye, instead fixing her eyes on a cobweb hanging delicately on one of the chandeliers. The high ceilings at the boarding house were a nightmare. It could really do with a clean.

Unable to gauge her motionless reaction, Stefan feared that his joke was too risky, "Elena, I'm sorry, I didn't think-"

"No, Stefan, it's fine. I just-no. You know what? Go, enjoy yourself. Our hybrid problems will still be here when you get back."

"Okay," resigned Stefan, kissing Elena gently on the cheek, "I love you, don't ever forget that. Ever."

"I love you too, Stefan," replied Elena, looping her arms around his neck and kissing him deeply, before letting him drive away in his little red car.

But no matter how much she loved Stefan, she had to speak to him. See him. Explain, before Stefan did. He wouldn't be pleased at her explanation, probably wouldn't hear her out. He'd put on some false bravado, mask his feelings, turn off the switch, go kill a sorority girl. But for what it was worth, she had to try. She couldn't leave things with him like this.

Her relationship with him in Stefan's absence was so much more than friendship. There. She finally admitted it. She was more than friends with him. As she said, he got under her skin. And she still can't shake him off. When she's with him, she sees another side to him. The pickle-eating side that is surprisingly slow at downing shots considering the net volume of alcohol he actually drinks.

She doesn't mind him in her bed. Not like that. Well, not necessarily. When he kissed her, she knew nothing more would come of that evening. But she couldn't predict what would happen between them in the future. She got jealous of him and Rebekah. She wished that it was her. She wanted him. She wants him. She'll still probably want him tomorrow.

But now she could never have him. Because she has Stefan. She needs that closure desperately now. It's consuming her. It's too much.

Taking her cell out of her back pocket, she called the number who was her first speed dial. Her emergency number. Hearing the drunken drawl at the other end of the line, she quickly deciphered that he was at the Grill, probably with Ric. He really needed to stop encouraging Ric. Getting restless of the incoherence on the line, she cut him off. Not that she knew what he was saying anyway. She couldn't hear him over the noise of Ric pleading with the bartender to serve him more alcohol.

"We need to talk..."

**My first VD fanfic...and it's a multi-chap! Go me! As a major Delena shipper, you have no idea how much this chapter pains me, but the chapter I'm currently writing is making me a lot happier :) Btw, this will be a Delena fic, just a bit of an upside-down one. Expect the unexpected. **

**My updating sucks, but will really try my best. In my defence, I've got another multi-chap for a UK show called Silent Witness going on at the moment, so my attention is un peu compliqué. (Plus, I have MAJOR exams next month, so a lot of my time is dedicated to revision...)**

**One last request, if I'm being cheeky...Review?**

**You would make my day, and feedback makes my proverbial world go round!**

**Love Em xox**


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